2007's 10 Best Childrens Hospitals

1. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

Current Research Studies: 1,536

Cutting-Edge Treatments: Developed a newly approved vaccine for rotavirus, a virus that causes high fever, severe vomiting, diarrhea, and hospitalizations in up to 70,000 American kids under age 5 annually; pioneered new therapies to treat neuroblastoma, the most common cancerous solid tumor occurring during early childhood; and opened the world's first center to collect and analyze DNA profiles on as many as 100,000 children to understand the genetic causes of childhood diseases.

Compassionate Care: Provides weekly movie nights with popcorn; a Sony PlayStation in 125 new rooms; an in-hospital TV station featuring shows like CHOP Idol (patients compete and vote in a singing competition � la American Idol); and more than 30 family support groups.

Community Focus: Offers a complete child-abuse and maltreatment center, establishing one of the nation's first fellowship programs for the specialty; makes housecalls to pinpoint possible allergens for certain children with severe asthma; and checked more than 1,000 car seats in 2005 and trained 30 technicians how to do so.

2. Children's Hospital Boston

Current Research Studies: 751

Cutting-Edge Treatments: Reconstructed defective bladders of kids using their own cells, marking the first time tissue engineering has rebuilt a complex internal organ in humans; successfully operated on 22-week-old fetuses diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (a condition in which the left side of the heart is underdeveloped and can hold very little blood), paving the way for surgeries after birth to go more smoothly; and detected abnormalities in the brain stems of babies who'd died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), which may lead to a test to determine infants at risk for the disease.

Compassionate Care: Provides a "Puppy Pre-Op" clinic, where kids are prepared for a procedure by watching a stuffed animal go through it; a supervised outdoor playground; Big Apple Circus clowns; one of the nation's oldest pediatric palliative (end-of-life) care programs; and free meals for breastfeeding mothers.

Community Focus: Runs one of the U.S.'s most comprehensive pediatric obesity clinics; distributes free bike helmets in schools; and successfully advocated for the creation of a statewide pediatric mental health commission.

3. Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

Current Research Studies: 668

Cutting-Edge Treatments: Established the Center for Pediatric Outcomes and Quality to study practices that may reduce medical errors and determine which treatments for specific conditions are most effective in children; designed a cushion-like device to simulate crawling and build upper-body strength in infants with spina bifida and other conditions that impede motor skills; and is refining a gene therapy that may in the next decade cure hemophilia A, a disorder that can cause internal bleeding with the slightest bump.

Compassionate Care: Provides a floor-wide party for a patient's birthday; pet-assisted therapy; a Mardi Gras costume party complete with fun floats (decorated red wagons); and massages for parents.

Community Focus: Gives training to school nurses; developed a physical-exam form to better identify high school athletes at risk for sudden death on the field from undiagnosed heart problems; joined with the state to boost immunization rates in Atlanta; and successfully lobbied for a state law to ban smoking.

4. Texas Children's Hospital, Houston

Current Research Studies: 795

Cutting-Edge Treatments: Identified the entire series of genes responsible for an increasingly common strain of staph infections that are resistant to often-prescribed antibiotics, paving the way for the development of more targeted treatments; was selected as the only U.S. training center for the Berlin Heart, a mechanical device that may be implanted in children who are waiting for a heart transplant; and developed a technique to reduce the time it takes to perform one type of scoliosis surgery by more than an hour, thereby reducing complications.

Compassionate Care: Provides DVD players and video game systems in every patient room; a playground with a wheelchair-accessible swing; classes to prepare kids who have a sibling in the NICU; and teen and preteen playrooms.

Community Focus: Set up a pediatric clinic in the Astrodome, which in 12 days treated more than 3,000 children who were victims of Hurricane Katrina; established three "medical homes" in low-income sections of Houston where children can receive free checkups and immunizations and be registered for nominal- or no-cost health insurance; and trained 40 technicians to check car seats. They performed more than 2,700 inspections in 2005.

5. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Current Research Studies: 1,076

Cutting-Edge Treatments: Analyzes genetic codes to determine which seizure medication is best suited to an individual child; reduced the rate of hospital-acquired infections in babies on a ventilator more than sixfold from 2004 to the first seven months of 2006; and identified a protein that could be used to predict whether patients receiving kidney transplants need dialysis within the first week of surgery.

Compassionate Care: Provides knitting, scrapbooking, and ice cream socials for families and a clinical concierge nurse to coordinate outpatient appointments to multiple departments.

Community Focus: Has established a comprehensive weight-management program for kids as young as age 5; improved the percentage of children with chronic illness who receive a flu shot from 17% in the 19992000 season to more than 60% four years later; and runs the Psychiatric Intake Response Center to quickly link at-risk children to mental health services.

6. Columbus Children's Hospital, OH

Current Research Studies: 655

Cutting-Edge Treatments: Was the first U.S. hospital to use gene therapy to treat a child with a form of muscular dystrophy; is working on a vaccine to prevent ear infections; and is home to the Center for Injury Research and Policy, a program that identifies causes of injury-related deaths and disabilities in kids and offers practical suggestions for preventing children from getting hurt.

Compassionate Care: Provides sleeping accommodations for parents in 93% of patients' rooms; a supervised sibling clubhouse for brothers and sisters of patients; an expanded family resource center with laundry, fitness, and kitchen facilities; and plush dolls for children having an interventional procedure in the ER.

Community Focus: Offers a child-abuse prevention and treatment program; successfully lobbied for state legislation that allows moms to breastfeed in public; and offers free smoking-cessation classes for teens.

7. St. Louis Children's Hospital

Current Research Studies: 405
Cutting-Edge Treatments: Is home to the world's largest pediatric lung-transplant program; helped discover that a deficiency of copper may cause birth defects, opening the door for women planning to conceive to be screened before pregnancy; and is one of a handful of pediatric centers in the nation with a program to surgically repair the eyesight of kids with special needs, such as children with cerebral palsy.

Compassionate Care: Has a rooftop garden with more than 7,000 plants and flowers, waterfalls, and two ponds filled with goldfish; music, art, and horticultural therapists; a newly designed NICU featuring private rooms with bedside sleeping accommodations for parents; game shows for patients to play via the hospital's closed-circuit TV station; and free meals for mothers who are breastfeeding.

Community Focus: Constructed 32 new playgrounds throughout the city; advocated for the recently passed state legislation requiring the use of booster seats from the time children outgrow their toddler car seat to age 8; and piloted an innovative program in three of the city's public schools that reduces absences due to asthma by as much as 30%.

8. Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, Cleveland

Current Research Studies: 169

Cutting-Edge Treatments: Develops techniques and designs equipment for minimally invasive neurosurgery for brain tumors, reducing recovery time and increasing safety; was awarded the highest designation in the care of epilepsy from the National Association of Epilepsy Centers; and co-founded the world's only school focusing on providing safer alternatives to pediatric blood transfusions.

Compassionate Care: Provides a session with a psychologist and social worker for every cancer patient; a mental health care program for parents with babies in the NICU; and an outdoor playground with giant flower canopies for shade.

Community Focus: Launched the Children Who Witness Violence program to break the cycle of domestic violence often learned in the home; promotes the safe storage of firearms in homes and distributes free trigger locks; and trained 24 technicians to check car seats and gave a refresher course to another 71 in 2005.

9. Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Current Research Studies: 753

Cutting-Edge Treatments: Administers a long-acting injection of insulin so some children newly diagnosed with diabetes can be treated in the hospital's outpatient clinic rather than be admitted; has received national acclaim for rabies treatment and research; and at press time, planned to open a state-of-the-art research facility in January to study important pediatric conditions including middle-ear infections, kidney disease, and hemophilia.

Compassionate Care: Provides a visiting artists program, which includes creative projects that patients receive help making; a sibling day every year for brothers and sisters of cancer and transplant patients; an on-site dry-cleaning service for families; and custom-designed freezers in the NICU to allow the storage of breast milk for a long period of time.

Community Focus: Teaches an injury-prevention class for preschools and kindergartens; offers a weight-management program for local children; and distributed 1,000 free bike helmets at area events in 2005.

10. The Children's Hospital in Denver

Current Research Studies: 643

Compassionate Care: Provides yoga therapy for cancer patients; teen karaoke nights; a patient art gallery; an outdoor playground with a padded floor; and camps for siblings of patients.

Community Focus: Offers a nationally renowned weight-management program for kids; lends specially designed car seats to families whose kids have a cast; and sponsors clinics to distribute free flu vaccines.